Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A Banner Day

This is a little project Leigh Ann and I worked on a couple of days ago. It is a Welcome Home banner made from a Flag Day Farm Layer Cake. Lissa Alexander, the Vice President of Marketing for Moda Fabrics asked me if I had done anything lately with the Moda Fabric pre-cuts. You know, the nifty little packages of fabric like the Layer Cake, Jelly Roll, Charm Pack, Honey Bun, etc. This is what I came up with. Do you have a family function coming up? A soldier coming home on leave? A new baby? A college student visiting with a car full of dirty laundry? This might be exactly what is needed to make the occasion extra festive.

Lissa has a great new project - a new blog called www.ModaBakeShop.com. You will find this and lots of other projects with step by step instructions. It was fun to do and can be done very quickly. Of course, now that I have it made I have thought of several variations and an improvement. Instead of 11 pennants with a space between the words - I think I would do 12 pennants with a blank pennant separating the words. This way it would hang symmetrically. Duh! Asymmetrical is cool too. At least I thought so when we made this. No biggie. You will find the tutorialhere. Thanks, Leigh Ann for your sewing brilliance. If you need a Flag Day Farm Layer Cake or the Prairie Paisley twill tape - you can get it here.

Yesterday was Bill's birthday. Bill opted for Chocolate Chip cookies instead of a birthday cake. Works for me. Besides a nice birthday dinner he got cards and phone calls from his sisters and from Lorelei he received a fantastic hand knitted blanket. Lorelei knows her Dad's habit of watching t.v. at night in a hooded sweatshirt, bundled underneath a quilt. He calls it a blanket because he is a hockey player. To anyone else - it is a shawl. Semantics. This is what Lorelei was knitting on our trip to Virginia. It is a lovely blend of browns and greens. Bill wouldn't model it. I can say with authority it is lovely, and very warm. I tested it last night as I stitched while watching t.v.Laurie

Me too! I love your quilt behind you modeling the beautiful shawl! I enlarged the photo & I just have to tell you how cute your glasses are! I love their shape, & they look wonderful on you! . . & using a layer cake for banner flags . . . what a great idea!xo, Bren

Okay, the quilt behind me is made with 2 "Winter" Jelly Rolls and the pattern is a Moda U pattern called Lucky 9 Patch. It is a cinch to make. I have made 3 quilts using this pattern and you can piece the top in a weekend. Really. The finished quilt is a full size quilt. Thanks for asking - we had all the walls in the dining room hung with "Winter" quilts. Laurie

Hi Laurie! I did a post about the Moda Bake Shop too, and asked which projects was my readers favorites. I have to say- your banner just might be the winner!! Such a great idea. Hope you are doing great!

Beautiful shawl - how lucky you were to get to "test drive" it! The Lucky 9 Patch behind you is beautiful, too. Speaking of nine patches, my friend blogged about our quilt retreat and has a picture of me working on Chippewa Nine Patch here: http://thistledownblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/quilting-retreat-or-marathon.html